Many existing photoautotrophic organisms are poorly suited for industrial bioprocessing and have therefore not demonstrated commercial viability. Although aquatic photoautotrophs, such as cyanobacteria, may exhibit rapid growth rates and efficient photosynthetic pathways, giving them tremendous potential for sustainable production of carbon-based products of interest from only CO2, N2, and sunlight, they have not yet been optimized for production. Such organisms typically require large amounts of water usage as well as time and energy to harvest biomass. Therefore, a need exists to modify existing photoautotroph hosts such that these drawbacks can be overcome.